Google: Quarters down, year up

Last Thursday Google announced their first Quarter results of 2009. Compared to the last Quarter of 2008 Google saw a three percent decline in revenues. Compared to a year earlier though Google grew 6%.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt urged to point out the recession: "Google had a good quarter given the depth of the recession... These results underline both the resilience of our business model and the ongoing potential of the web as users and advertisers shift online".

The first Quarter revenues were a total of $5.51 billion (approximately 4.23 billion euros). 52% of this total came from outside the United States. The numbers weren't specified to Europe, but Google dit show that the UK had a total revenue of 562 million euros. With that the UK was good for 13% of the total revenues in the fist Quarter.

The rumours that Google is letting a lot of people only shows a little in the numbers given in the press release. Wordlwide Google now has 20,164 full-time employees, only a decrease of 58 compared to December 31st last year.